Making sense of Martha: single women and mission work

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Periodical article

Title:	Making sense of Martha: single women and mission work
Author:	Arrington, Andrea L.
Year:	2010
Periodical:	Social Sciences and Missions = Sciences sociales et missions (ISSN 1874-8937)
Volume:	23
Issue:	2
Pages:	276-300
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Angola
Subjects:	missions single women white women
About person:	Martha L. Moors
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1163/187489410X511579
Abstract:	Although there is a large, sophisticated literature on gender and mission work, single women still remain on the periphery of those studies. Through the case of Martha L. Moors, a single American missionary working in Portuguese West Africa (Angola today) in the 1920s, this study offers an examination of how the two identities of 'single woman' and 'missionary' affected mission culture and work. Single women occupied a tenuous position, as they were often called upon to instruct non-Christian women on the principles of Christian marriage and motherhood. Moors' writings allow for an intimate consideration of how single women fit into mission culture and their reflections of how they served the missions. Single women had to support the missions in ways that exemplified Christian femininity while lacking the validity of being wives and mothers. Notes, ref., sum in English and French. [Journal abstract]